Battle of the Sexes Over Climate Change

Male-dominated governments have been destroying the planet for too long, and now women need to clean up the mess. Women already control the majority of the shopping decisions, and now they just need to buy the right foods, shoes, and handbags to save the world from global warming.

A greener tomorrow will consist of “women driving the domestic agenda and men thinking they are doing the real work with dams and treaties,” Simon Fanshawe, writing for the UK-based eco-magazine Green Futures. This is good news for men like me (and Mr. Fanshawe) because that means women will do the work for us, while we can sit back watching football, drinking beer, and doing other stereotypical guy stuff.

The problem with this mode of thinking is that climate change is everyone’s problem. Fanshawe points out, “All the UK’s best-known eco campaigns are dominated by men.” This is a problem. But the solution shouldn’t be to make the environment a women’s issue. They should be equal partners, right?

It reminds me of a quote by Henry Kissinger:

“Nobody will ever win the Battle of the Sexes. There's just too much fraternizing with the enemy.”

Now I, for one, really approve of lazing around, drinking, and
getting women to do chores. But I think that waiting for the
redemptive feminine political bloc would be a social version of
waiting for Godot. Women, it seems, rarely vote as a block,
although many politicians expect them to. Because, it seems, women
are as mixed-up, ill-informed, and fallible as men. I think that
the Wilson Quarterly has something up on this:
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=wq.essay&essay_id=286628
via A&L Daily. http://bmackie.blogspot.com

John Gordon_3

10/31/2007 9:31:26 PM

Very perceptive! Who would have thought Kissinger would have
anything interesting to say on the subject?

Zippy_2

10/31/2007 1:55:59 PM

Great article. It is everyone's problem. Recently, I was handing
out ChicoBags (reusable shopping bags that, yes, come in colors
besides pink, and which look more "sporty" if you asked me) at a
major environmental charity's annual gala. Sad to say, the women
were open to the bags right away, but most of the men weren't -
like taking one was an afront to their masculinity. They felt they
were something just for the women and said, "I don't need one." I
replied, "Do you shop?" And when they answered "yes," then I added,
"Well then you need one." It was at that moment they seemed to get
it. I wonder if that's an American cultural issue though. Men in
Europe don't have an issue with dancing like men in America do. So
I wonder if it goes along the same lines. Environmentalism isn't
"woman's work" and, frankly, I don't know many women who find men
who lack compassion for the environment to be very attractive.
Well, there's Lynn Cheney of course, but other than her, it's hard
to name one. http://www.chicobag.com